Mesh Wi Fi with 2.4 and 5ghz channels.

hollie.weimeraner

I've just moved house and my wifi doesn't reach everywhere I need it to.  I'm looking at mesh wifi 6 systems but they don't have separate channels for 2.4 and 5ghz (at least the ones I'm looking at).  I have some smart switches that only work on 2.4ghz, along with a smart doorbell that only works on the 2.4 channel. Any suggestions please?

JenB79

Wifi 6 definitely works on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz. Have a look at this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Next-Gen-Extenders-HomeCare-Antivirus/dp/B0041JNUAI

hollie.weimeraner

Yes I know it works on both channels but the option to choose channels manually seems to be missing as Netgear, TP Link and Google all seem to be combined into a single SSID with the router choosing the best but this isn't compatible with some 2.4 hardware for some reason. It's very convoluted to do so https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Mesh-System/Split-WiFi-Networks/m-p/1867505

And netgear seem to have upgraded the firmware to stop this now as well
 

[Deleted User]

hollie.weimeraner said:

I've just moved house and my wifi doesn't reach everywhere I need it to.  I'm looking at mesh wifi 6 systems but they don't have separate channels for 2.4 and 5ghz (at least the ones I'm looking at).  I have some smart switches that only work on 2.4ghz, along with a smart doorbell that only works on the 2.4 channel. Any suggestions please?

The 2.4Ghz devices will connect to the 2.4Ghz absolutely fine, they won't even be able to see the 5Ghz network so it won't make any difference to the device if both are named the same.

I have exactly this setup, one SSID for convenience across 3 bands (1x 2.4Ghz and 2x 5Ghz), all the devices just connect to their preferred band and just work. Includes smart lights / sockets / doorbells / cameras etc.

When setting up some smart devices with a phone, they tell you that the phone needs to be on the same 2.4Ghz band as the smart device, but in practice I've never had a problem setting them up when the phone is on the 5Ghz band - as long as the router correctly bridges the two networks then there shouldn't be an issue.

In fairness the whole point of a mesh system is that the devices that can connect to either band have the option of roaming seamlessly across them when the signal strength dictates, and having the same SSID for both bands ensures the roaming is seamless and therefore it is a design feature rather than a limitation to have both bands on the same SSID.

victor2

hollie.weimeraner said:

I've just moved house and my wifi doesn't reach everywhere I need it to.  I'm looking at mesh wifi 6 systems but they don't have separate channels for 2.4 and 5ghz (at least the ones I'm looking at).  I have some smart switches that only work on 2.4ghz, along with a smart doorbell that only works on the 2.4 channel. Any suggestions please?

Many routers (including the Asus AC-RT68U I recently set up) have the ability to reject a specified MAC address from a particular band. I used it to effectively force a device to always connect at 5GHz instead of the 2.4GHz it kept defaulting to.

It's under "Wireless MAC Filter" on that particular router (which isn't WiFi 6). Just look for a similar capability.

hollie.weimeraner

[Deleted User] said:

hollie.weimeraner said:

I've just moved house and my wifi doesn't reach everywhere I need it to.  I'm looking at mesh wifi 6 systems but they don't have separate channels for 2.4 and 5ghz (at least the ones I'm looking at).  I have some smart switches that only work on 2.4ghz, along with a smart doorbell that only works on the 2.4 channel. Any suggestions please?

The 2.4Ghz devices will connect to the 2.4Ghz absolutely fine, they won't even be able to see the 5Ghz network so it won't make any difference to the device if both are named the same.

I have exactly this setup, one SSID for convenience across 3 bands (1x 2.4Ghz and 2x 5Ghz), all the devices just connect to their preferred band and just work. Includes smart lights / sockets / doorbells / cameras etc.

What Mesh system do you have please?